Hotel California

I've always believed that there should be a movie based on the song Hotel California, since I don't have the tools nor budget to make one, I'm going to do the next best thing and write a story.




                                                  Chapter 1
  The night was dark. But not that creepy kind of dark that makes you not want to leave the house. But at the same time it wasn't a calm, welcoming, "Let's go for a walk"  kind of night. It was a night that was unlike any other I had experienced before. Quiet, yet I could barely hear myself think, there was a voice in the air. It was extremely faint, yet entrancing. Next thing I knew I woke up with my head against the steering wheel, on the side of the road. I'm not quite sure if I fell asleep or what happened. I noticed I was out of gas, no cellphone signal nor enough battery left to make a call, and no gas in the jug I keep in the trunk. So now I had to walk my happy ass to...somewhere...anywhere. It had been a very long time since I passed a gas station, so I figured going forward would be the best option.
  I'm not entirely sure why, nor why I didn't notice that, even though I had driven this route more times than I'd like to remember, nothing looked familiar to me. As I walked the road became longer, and the moon became dimmer. Somehow I felt as if I was the only person on the planet awake. I had no clue what time it was, My cellphone was dead and I never cared to wear a watch. Of all the times you wish you could go back knowing then what you know now, this was one of the biggest. The voice that had been floating on the cool night breeze that lifted my hair as I walked for the past couple hours had grown fainter and eventually subsided completely. A small flicker of light in the distance caught my eye. "Finally some good news" I thought to myself. It was only later I found how just how wrong I was.

                                                Chapter 2
  The distant light became brighter as I approached, and the voice returned, but it was different. Instead of one faint voice that was near impossible to understand, this sounded more like a song of some kind. But as I was still unable to make out any words it just sounded like an incoherent chant of some kind. I tried to ignore it as I approached the ever-growing light. Though the light grew brighter, the street itself seemed to elongate itself as I walked, as if it didn't want me to reach whereever it was I was now heading. If it wasn't for the light drawing nearer, I wouldn't have been able to tell if I was moving at all. The walk was endless, the night was unnatural, the air was dense, but the light was welcoming, I could almost feel its warmth somehow, yet it still seemed so far away. The voice grew louder, I felt the same as I had back in the car. I fought the feeling as long as I could. Then I broke free of its hold when I noticed something.
  Even though this road traversed a desert, it had always been full and surrounded with life. Yet tonight, not a single creature stirred the entire time I had been out. Not a cricket had sounded, not a single animal of any kind was heard in the undergrowth on the sides of the road, not a single nighttime bird had sung. This made me want to stop and run back to the car as fast as I could and just wait 'till morning. But my feet wouldn't carry me anyway but forward. The voice overcame me and I sank into darkness. When I came to I had stopped walking and was now in front of a large, Gothic or Victorian-style wooden door with a large eagle-shaped knocker. The light was now directly in front of me, warming my face, calming my spirit, but chilling my blood.

                                                Chapter 3
  The hypnotic melody of the chant was now as prominent as the door in front of me. Still unable to make out any words, and overcome by an exhaustion that almost took me right there on the doorstep, I lifted the knocker, its weight broke free from my hand and crashed against the door. A young woman answered. Her eyes seemed lifeless, she dragged herself as if she had just woken up from an almost coma-like sleep. A bell sounded and rang through the air, and in a flash the entire area regained life. The candle in the young woman's hand lit, her eyes were now alive and vivid. The door, which was a moment ago old and worn, was now polished and radiated a fresh aroma of mahogany and oak. My thoughts and emotions mixed. Half of me thought this could be my salvation, a safe haven from the torments of the endless night and relentless exhaustion But the other, felt a more foreboding mix, almost as if this decision would be my last, almost as if this door was the very gateway into hell itself. Exhaustion took the better of me and I accepted her invitation.
  She lead me through the door and down the corridors. As I walked through the halls, the voice was no longer a barely audible voice, but now a calming serenade of hypnotic rhythm and lyric. Though the voices could clearly be heard, most of the words were unfamiliar to me. The words I could make out seemed to resonate directly into my soul. The words seemed to speak straight to me. Amidst the words I didn't understand the ones I did rang crystal clear.  "Welcome to the hotel California...such a lovely place...such a lovely face..." My thoughts turned strangely to the reason I left in the first place. My wife and her flashy Mercedes Benz and her "Friends" or as she called them. Groups of models and steroid-addict bastards. Luckily the song filled my mind and eased the tension. The voices echoed among the corridors calming my weary mind, my tired body, and my heavy soul. Through the pillars atop the grand stairs of the main chamber overlooking the courtyard, I saw a group of people dancing around a large fire. It was savage, yet at the same time elegant. I wanted to join them but my mind and body wouldn't allow it as they ached for a comfortable rest. The dance resembled some type of ceremony, I tried to shake it off as my imagination, but it ate at me. I asked the caretaker if she knew the meaning behind it. She simply said "Some dance to remember, some to forget." She wouldn't explain any further, and I didn't push the matter.
  She led me to my room and I sat and called down for a bottle of wine. A fine tall man delivered a bottle aged with dust, fragrance soaked through the cork creating an inticing aroma that did well to accent the quality. Something about me must have triggered something in him because he began to tell stories of "The good old days" and how class has died. He said the last person who actually sat and drank wine was back in 1969. As I sank into relaxation the dancing stopped and the voices picked back up. And even though I thought I was in the building that was the source of the chant, it sounded distant. I awoke a few hours later, simply to listen. "Welcome to the hotel California...Such a lovely place...such a lovely face...livin' it up at....." I drifted back into the darkness of sleep.

                                              Chapter 4
  I awoke to what I expected to be morning, yet it was either still, or again, pitch black outside. The dancing had resumed in the same fashion as when I arrived last night. The female caretaker was sitting in the corner of the room folding clothes and cleaning the vanity mirror. I paid her little attention as she seemed to be of no harm to anyone. I looked up to see a large ceiling mirror. "Wow...I look like shit" I spoke softly as to not disturb the young lady. I saw some champagne on the night stand. I grabbed a glass and sipped it leisurely. In a blink the woman was gone from her corner and sitting on the corner of the bed. I tried my hardest not to spray the mouthful of champagne all over her and the bed out of surprise. I swallowed hard, but before I could say anything she spoke up. "This place is not as it seems". "We may seem all well and good, but were all prisoners of our own device." She left without another word and never glanced up from the floor. "That is a strange little lady". I sat up and buttoned my shirt. I wandered the hallways admiring the elegance of the decorations and overall layout of this castle-like building I had stumbled upon. Of all the moments you wish you had a camera.
  I walked out to the dancers and joined in for a little while. A little while later "The captain" as he was called came down the stairs and all went quiet. "If you would please follow me to the master's chamber so we may begin the feast". Nice free bed, free meal, free booze, this place just kept getting better and better. We all gathered in the master's chamber around the most massive and most beautiful table I had ever seen in my life. The food rested on the table in quantities I didn't know existed. Smoked turkey rested in one corner. In the middle rested a massive roasted pig on a bed of lettuce. A honey glazed ham surrounded with pineapple, roasted duck drenched in a sauce whose aroma was almost maddeningly delicious. The smells and the sounds of that room were the most intoxicating comfort I had ever felt in my life. The guests kept pouring through the door. I counted 50 plus people gathered around the same table. I was seated near the middle of the table. The chairs were a soft red velvet wrapped around gold laced oak. At the head of the table rested the largest most decorated throne, in-lain with gold and encrusted with jewels of every shape and color. The giant swung doors closed, and down the stairs came a man, robed and laced with jewelry.....
  "TREACHERY!"....I woke up under the table, covered in blood. The robed man lay beside me almost torn in two. "TRAITOROUS BASTARDS!" The sounds of steel clashing, mixed with tearing of flesh and cracking of bone. One man stood alone atop the table, and although they stabbed him with their steely knives, they could not kill him. A beast of a man. Huge hulking features adorned in leather and steel armor. As the bodies fell around the table I tried to find a way out, but there was a torrent of men rushing in and more trying to rush out. I spotted an opening in the crowd, built up my courage, and rushed. As I ran something struck me in the back.I felt a horrible warmth as blood rushed from my body and slithered down my back to the floor. I faded into blackness.

                                            Chapter 5
  I awoke to what I expected to be morning, yet it was either still, or again, pitch black outside. The dancing had resumed in the same fashion as when I arrived last night. The female caretaker was sitting in the corner of the room folding clothes and cleaning the vanity mirror. I looked up to see a large ceiling mirror. I was white and in a deep cold sweat. My thoughts screamed "Wow that was a hell of a dream" but the only words that came out were "Wow...I look like shit". I shook the deja-vous off. I joined the dancers in their hypnotic dance, and drank my fill of the best wines and liquors I had ever tasted. The feeling of deja-vous followed me all day. Taunting and scratching at my mind, I couldn't clearly remember all of what had happened in the night terror, so I didn't realize that everything I was doing had happened in my dream. Then it happened. The captain came down the grand stairs and said the words "If you would please follow me to the master's chamber so we may begin the feast". The memories of the dinner in my dream returned and burned my mind with a ferocity i had never before felt in my life. I ran back to my room and locked the door. The horrible noises resonated through the halls to my room. I couldn't take it. I grabbed all my things and ran. The last thing I remember, I was running for the door, I somehow found a passage that led me back to the front chamber. "Relax said the night man, we are programmed to receive." his next words chilled me to the core, I froze for what seemed like days and broke down. "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave".
  Every "morning" I awoke to the same progression of events. A residual and unending nightmare. The champagne on the nightstand, the female caretaker in the corner, the dancing outside, and the inevitable massacre that would come. 42 days I counted before I gave up all hope. I even tried to change the events. One day I would stay in my room, but they would find me. Another I would try to hide in some remote corner, but they would burn down the place. Once I even tried to prevent the whole thing from happening by trying to stop them from entering, that plan ended pretty quickly as I was no fighter. So this was my new reality. To live only to be brutally cut down, and do it all over again. I would prefer hell to this madness.
  I awoke to what I expected to be the same night and the same story. But this time it was different. The time was dusk, for the first time in what seemed like eternity I felt the warmth of the twilight sun on my face through the window. Everything was different, the caretaker wasn't in the corner, the champagne was now just an empty ice bucket. The captain walked through the door. "Good your awake, you will take over the duties of Caretaker. Here is a list of what your position holds." He handed me a piece of paper. I was now a part of the staff, and I was doomed to walk the halls for the rest of my life...or longer.


                                              Epilogue
  I walked to the door in response to the knock. Due to the current state of things there was barely any life in me. But then the mission bell rang and in an instant my life was renewed. I felt a warmth was through me and I felt once again as if this all really was a dream and i was back in my own world. But then my mind left my body, i felt as if i was in a dream. I could see what i was doing, but I couldn't control myself. I opened the large wood door. There stood a young man, confused, yet relieved. He dragged himself with an exhaustion I could no longer relate to. As I lead him through the halls we passed the grand stair that overlooked the courtyard. He stopped for a moment and observed. Then he asked a question "Why are they dancing like that?" Every fiber in my being screamed "RUN, leave this place while you still can!" But the only words that came out were the only words I could now say. "Some dance to remember, some to forget. Welcome to the Hotel California"